Another newbie to homebrew:My Mistake

[DarCoop]

I am a newbie to homebrewing and love it already. Great site with lots of help. My problem: I was brewing last night from an extract. I was boiling wort, felt something on bottom of pan. I took thermometer out of wort and tip of thermometer was broken and glass and those little gravel-looking things were in bottom of pot. Thermometer itself was NOT broken. I chilled wort and poured it into carboy using a funnel with strainer. It is fermenting now and I know I should go on with it. Just hoping someone will say they did same thing and no problems. I figure by time I rack into secondary and then rack into bottling bucket, any "junk" will be left behind.
Thanks for all advice i have gotten just by reading other posts.

[Tweek]

Actually I have done that. I was not as brave as you however and figured there was a chance, albeit a very slight one that some glass could make it to my finished product and so I dumped the batch.

That being said I do think that the chance of it making it from the brew pot to the fermenter, then to secondary, then to bottle or keg is vary minute and if you are a gambling man is prob a pretty safe bet you are ok.

[Payson]

My fear would be that the "little gravel looking things" are lead. I'm not sure but it is something to look into. Good luck!

[DarCoop]

The "gravel Stuff" did not look like lead. Not sure what it was. I am being an optimist and hoping that since it was in a thermometer used for "cooking", the stuff in it would not kill me too bad.
Guess I need to try to strain it again in one of the transfers to get any glass out of it that may slip through. ANY suggestions anyone?

[Jughead]

Maybe try a digital thermometer next time ;)

[b3s]

wrap a plastic scouring pad around the bottom of your racking cane/autosiphon and attach with either rubber bands or zip ties (just did this for the first time when racking on friday) -- make sure to sanitize the entire contraption.

[DarCoop]

I will do the sanitized new scouring pad. I just hated to waste entire batch. Thanks.
I do not even know why I had thermometer in pot since it was boiling and that is easy to tell just by looking.
Hope I can chalk it up to rookie mistake.

[YamahaXS]

it wasn't mercury was it?

If so, i wouldn't drink that no matter what.

[b3s]

he said the thermometer itself was not broken, so i assume that it was just the glass casing...if i'm wrong about that, then, right, as yamaha said -- don't drink it if it is mercury.

[toneyc]

I did the same exact thing once. I dumped the batch, though, my thermometer had lead shot for ballast. Very annoying.

:eek:
Toney.

[DarCoop]

I guess I have several weeks to determine if it is lead as balast or some other substance. I still have theremometer, so I can try to figure out what is in it. (I felt good until you siad yours had lead in it.) DANG!!!
Maybe that is why my OG was higher than I thought it would be. I may have some other stuff suspended in there fermenting up a storm. I used Mountmelick(sp?) Export Ale and 3 lbs of Laaglander Light DME.

[paul84043]

The lead is not a problem, you can't get enough lead from secondary contact to even measure.
I work in an X-Ray tube production Plant, everything we have is covered with lead, I have done extensive research on it.
Just don't eat the lead balls.
In fff-f-fifteenn-n-n y-y-y-years....I have had-d-d no n nn nnegat-t-tive side ef-ff-fffecst f-ff-ff-fffrom l--l-ll-l--llead..
just kidding...you actually have to eat it to get a measurable amount.
The possibility of mercury is another story, Mercury will kill you. As long as the thermometer didn't break, you should be fine. Just strain like suggested.
I use one of the all metal thermometers. Nothing to break...

[DarCoop]

The thermometer did not break, so no mercury. I checked tonight and it feels and looks like some kind of plastic that acted as ballast at bottom.
I will just strain good and carry on.
It sure is nice to have place like this to seek advice. I live 150 miles from nearest HB store, so hard to drop by for advice.
Thanks

[Tweek]

most homebrew shops only sell alcohol thermometers. These days it is rare to see a brewing thermometer that is mercury.

[axis714]

No doubt! ...{raises glass high} Heres to having a forum with a support group like this one..I just recently found this site , and after the good ol days of asking questions of illeterate LHBS owners and trying to decipher them silly ass instructions on a can of LME. . its just an astonishing knowledge base...i guarantee my next few batches improve dramatically over the ones before i came here.

[paul84043]

Glad you like it here!
I personally think it's an invaluable knowledge base and a great gruop of people to BS with as well....

I'm proud to be a part of it.

:D

[tjones_jr]

Originally posted by paul84043
The possibility of mercury is another story, Mercury will kill you.

Actually...I just learned in my Physics Class that it's the mercury vapors that are toxic. Mercury takes a long time to vaporize, and therefore if swallowed, would pass through your system before it even had a chance to do damage.
(an interesting tidbit of information, since when I was a child I once broke a thermometer in my mouth and I'm sure swallowed some mercury, in addition to playing with the remainder that fell on the counter)

HOWEVER, I'm not an expert, and would be careful of any residual Mercury in my Beer. I just wanted to share this newly acquired knowledge with the group.

[paul84043]

I was always under the impression that the mercury begins to vaporize when it hits the acids in your stomach.

I'd still avoid it like the plague...

I remember taking the mercury out of old thermostats and keeping it in bottles to play with....live and learn!!!

[BigRed]

Thats why you should get one of these (http://www.morebeer.com/detail.php3?pid=MT380). No chance of breakage there.

[Tweek]

agreed bigred. I love my thermometer like that. I bought it cause it was teh best design for checking the temp on my mashes, but wish I would have bought it back when I was doing extract too. IT is super fast and I like how it is longer too. Only drawback is that it will not do small amounts of liquid very well, seems like you need at least 3/4 inch to an inch for it to give a reading.

[paul84043]

That's the exact one that I have. The only problem I have had is when I went to rotate the clip, I actually rotated the thermometer needle inside the dial! OOPS.....

[DarCoop]

THis style thermometer is on my list for next time I order. I saw my brother-in-law had one today that he used when frying turkeys. He said he got it at Academy. It was like the one in pic but stem was about 10" long. It has clip to attach to side of pot. I may check that out next time I am at a store that sells turkey fryers.

[Jughead]

I like the probe on a wire type digital thermometers. Most kitchen supply stores have them and they are only about $20. I wrapped some shrink wrap around the point where the probe meets the wire point to keep it dry, and it works great. I can drop it in the mash cooler and read the temp continuously from outside the cooler.

http://www.comforthouse.com/comfort/cooktherprep.html

This isn't the one I have, but same style.